I have an alt on www.tfes.org. Can you name it?
Also, can you name any of these other organisations that have done the experiment
Sects of the Hollow Earth Society, the ones which believe that we live on the inside of a Hollow Earth, have conducted numerous water convexity experiments in their literature, seeing things that should not be visible, proving that the surface of the earth is not convex (although they just use it to conclude that RET is incorrect).
The US NAVY and other militaries across the world conduct Flat Earth Experiments every day. Consider Over the Horizon Radar. Radar dishes pointed at the horizon can see for thousands of miles over the horizon which should be impossible in Round Earth Theory.
OTH radars don't use dish antennas. They use large arrays of antennas, but not dishes, because of the wavelengths involved. You may want to read up on this stuff before saying anything about it.
The simplest explanation to explain these observations is that the earth is flat and that the photons travel in straight lines.
This explanation is not consistent with observations of electromagnetic radiation ("photons" if you want) at VHF and shorter wavelengths. Traditional radar uses much higher frequencies (shorter wavelengths) because that allows it to have better resolution, but those short wavelengths restrict it to essentially line-of-sight distances consistent with the curvature of the earth. OTH radar uses shortwave (HF) and lower frequencies because these can follow the curvature of the Earth for great distances if conditions are right. The "Russian Woodpecker" OTH radar in the 1970s and '80s was a huge nuisance for shortwave users like ham radio operators, international broadcasters, and aircraft.
But to keep RET alive an excuse was made up that the photons are actually being broadcasted off of the dish and bounce along the sky and the ground like ricocheting billiard balls to their location, hit a body in the distance, and then return along their bouncing path and an image can be miraculously resolved and recognized back at the radar facility without significant scattering.
"Transmitted" is a better term than "broadcast" (and "broadcasted" is
much less commonly used than "broadcast", if at all anymore). And, as already mentioned, neither the transmitting no receiving antenna is a dish. OTH radars don't form an image of their targets, either. They pretty much tell something is there and roughly how far away it is.
Photons creating an image from light rays bouncing off of the ground and sky, and then back again! Can you believe that?
No. Where did you get the idea that's what happens?
<Incorrectly interpreted image http://www.eol.ucar.edu/rsf/AP96/images/slides/duct_diagram_small.gif>
Experiments hat Texas State University have shown that Kansas is Flatter than a Pancake. In fact, the experimenters needed to go to great lengths to measure it because the high precision tools were reading that Kansas was nearly mathematically flat. If the earth were a globe and the continents were wrapped around its surface with "gravity", Kansas would similarly be curved.
Your reference is the Annals of Improbable Research, a spoof publication. The results reported (elevation profile of Kansas and surface rugosity of a flapjack) are probably factual, but "flat" in the context of Kansas' elevation profile is relative to datum; an ellipsoid. You simply misinterpret the terminology.
Anyway, maybe you can explain this picture. It's described as showing the tops of the highest skyscrapers in Chicago, taken from 46 miles away. It was submitted by one of the more prolific and adamant flat-earth proponents these days, cikljamas because he postulated (incorrectly) that none of these buildings should be visible at all if the Earth were spherical.
The photo is entirely consistent with the scene and horizon expected for Lake Michigan photographed from a few meters above lake level if the Earth were a sphere with diameter about 8,000 miles. After that was resolved, the question was asked of flat-earth proponents: how do you explain seeing
only the upper reaches of the tallest buildings from 46 miles if the Earth were flat. Why can't you see the entire skyline down to the waterfront?
http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=62885.msg1662098#msg1662098and restated here:
http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=62885.msg1662517#msg1662517There have been only a couple half-hearted answers - one where the responder pretty much walks away from his explanation in the middle of giving it, and another semi-coherent reply that the buildings are "camouflaged" by the rippled water surface, or something.
Care to take a crack at it, Tom?